Interview

Chuck Anderson

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Chuck Anderson. I'm a Chicago-based designer/photographer/creative director. Can I just call myself an "art guy", but like...I'm not actually that "artsy". Hmm. Someone help me with a better title. I run my own studio called NoPattern which I've done for 13 years and I'm the Design Director at an ad agency called Havas Worldwide Chicago. I also have a blog called THE BRILLIANCE! that I run with my friends Benjamin Edgar and Virgil Abloh. It's existed since 2005, we went on hiatus for a few years and just brought it back in May 2017. Very excited to have that creative outlet back.

What hardware do you use?

My main machine right now is a Retina 5K, 27-inch, late 2015 iMac. It's a 4GHz core i7, 32 GB RAM, AMD Radeon R9 Graphics card. I have a 1TB SSD drive built in and 3 external drives connected. One 2TB drive that I throw old work/resources/random stuff on, one for RAW photography, and one as a Time Machine backup. I should probably get a RAID setup one of these days.

I also have a MacBook Pro but honestly I don't use it for work that much, it's more the email, on-the-go, in-a-pinch kind of thing. I use a large Wacom Intuos 4 tablet for nearly everything I do.

And what software?

Pretty much just Adobe products. Photoshop and Illustrator are like 99% of my workflow. I'm working on learning Cinema 4D but that's more hobby/on the side right now than anything else. Boring answer :/ Sorry.

One thing I do use a LOT on OS X is Spaces. I have all my internet windows in one space, Photoshop in its own space, Illustrator in its own, Spotify, etc. It's nice to be able to break up where each piece of software is at instead of having a zillion windows on one screen. I've realized a lot of people don't use Spaces lately, and just minimize stuff, which is crazy to me. Use it! And just ctrl + arrow to fly around your workspace. It's the best.

What would be your dream setup?

I'll be honest, this is a pretty new iMac and it's not really pulling its weight in the ways I was hoping it would. I work with a lot of super huge PSDs and need things to be snappy, and I'm not sure if its this machine or the software or what but things just haven't been super smooth. I wish Apple would get moving and focus back on their Mac Pros more. I know they said they're going to do that but it seems they keep on coming up short in that department. My dream setup is a setup I don't have to think about. Tools should be just that - tools. Never commanding attention on their own, just working seamlessly.